Washington - Gen. Stanley McChrystal ended his 34-year Army career Friday in a retirement ceremony at his military headquarters here, marking the last chapter of his swift and stunning fall from grace.

The former commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, who inspired intense loyalty among many of those who served under him, was fired last month after Rolling Stone magazine published an article titled "The Runaway General" that quoted scathing remarks he and his aides made about their civilian bosses.

McChrystal complained that President Barack Obama had handed him "an unsellable position" on the war. Meanwhile the general's closest advisers mocked other government officials, including Vice President Joseph Biden, as fools ignorant of the complexities of war. "Biden? Did you say, 'Bite me?"' one aide is quoted saying.

Shortly after the article was published, McChrystal was sent to pack his bags.

McChrystal said goodbye before a few hundred friends, family and colleagues on the Fort McNair parade grounds, where the VIP-studded crowd wilted under an oppressive July heat wave.

Soldiers attending the ceremony were allowed to forgo their formal dress uniforms in lieu of combat fatigues - a seeming tribute to a war commander fresh from battle and whose career was marked by more secret operations to snatch terror suspects than by pomp and circumstance.

Wearing his own Army combat uniform for the last time, the four-star general received full military honors, including a 17-gun salute from four howitzers and flag formations by the Army's Old Guard.

He smiled and nodded at members in the crowd and appeared to joke with Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who had a hand in firing him albeit reluctantly.

On Friday, Gates gave McChrystal a hero's tribute.

"Over the past decade, arguably no single American has inflicted more fear, more loss of freedom and more loss of life on our country's most vicious and violent enemies than Stan McChrystal," Gates said.

Afghanistan's top representative to the United States said his country would remember McChrystal for generations to come.

"We will never forget the sacrifices that you and those under your command have made to make Afghanistan safer for our children," Ambassador Jawad said.

A close aide to the general, Col. Charles Flynn, says McChrystal plans to live in the northern Virginia area after moving out of his home in Washington's Fort McNair.

"Presently, the general is concentrating on his transition, the move, his family and remains undecided about future employment options," Flynn wrote in an e-mail to The Associated Press.

Senior military and defense officials said they agreed with Obama's decision but were crestfallen by the loss of a gifted colleague.

Last year, Defense Secretary Robert Gates gave McChrystal the job of turning around a stalemated war against Afghanistan's stubborn insurgency.

McChrystal was a seasoned special operations commander who made his reputation hunting down members of al-Qaida in Iraq, and helping turn around the course of that war. He was named to replace Gen. David McKiernan, who was removed from his post by an Obama administration anxious to chart a new course in the war.

The White House is allowing McChrystal to keep his four stars in retirement, even though Army rules would have normally required him to serve another two years at that rank.